User blog:Aniju Aura/Editing
I've seen many users on this wiki hoever we are not making good edits to our pages. Really it feels like I and MeerkatGal are doing all the work or fixing edits, so I am going to explain a simple way to edit the pages everyone can do. I understand some people are busy and so they will make fast edits. However it's not fair to make MeerkatGal do all the hard work and leaving me to fix up spelling errors or revising a page. Meerkat Mob Pages We have been having to undo a lot of last edits on the mobs' pages most infomation that is not yet available to the public. We can not edit a page untill the Life History that relates to that info comes out, such as Cruise's death in September. Once that appeared on Facebook everyone decied the Baobab's page should be edited. Cruise was removed from the page as the dominant female, however lacking any new infomation and Septembers' LH had not yet come out, that makes the page look terrible and veiwers may question our credibility if we can't back up our claim. Waiting till the new LH comes out is better than editing a page with little info. Now that the new LH is out we know which female took dominance after and we can make full complete edits, changing the dominant status, and the number of members, who was evicted and rover. It's better if we do it all at once. Also some information is not yet made available to the public which if seen by the KMP, they have the right to take action and stop giving out public info. Which would mean this wikia would have to be shut down. None of us what that, so please wait till the LH comes out before editing a page with infomation concerning the deaths of a dominant meerkat. Secondly, when editing a page, make sure you edit the eniter page, not just the Current Member list, but the template also has to be update, please provide a link in the mob's desciption, Dominant Pair and in the template when a meerkat becomes a dominant of that mob. Another on going problem is in the Current Member list, people remove or add meerkats but do not change the numbers or month given. Such as for the Baobab in August the Baobab had 13 members, in September the Baobab had 12 members. Please change the number and month before you hit save. The KMP has been losing many mobs in the past few years due to disease and the on going drought. A few months ago I made a Lost Mob Template called LostMobinfo for when a mob is lost. However I have forgotten about it untill now. When a mob is lost, just copy the infomation from the old template and paste it into the Lost Mob template before removing the old template. It helps to have two tabs open so you can veiw the old information. Editing a Meerkat Page First up all pages should start off stating who the page is about. Which is why I start of with the name of the meerkat and it's ID code, the meerkat's birth date and which mob they are from. A lot of basic info given in the first sentence. Then tell who the parents were and litter-mates and please include the litter-mates' ID codes. The parents and other meerkats don't have to have their ID's given unless a meerkat does not have a name. Another problem that keeps occuring is all meerkat pages should end with This meerkat '''is still alive in '''name of mob. For example Toblerone is still alive today as the dominant female of the Pandora, for dominant meerkats or for a suborinate, Firefly is still alive today in the Toyota. It doesn't have to be exactly like that but something along those lines so the veiwer knows this meerkat is still alive and will know what mob they are currently in. Unless the meerkat is no longer with us. People seem to keep editing after that sentence and it makes the page look bad. So make sure to put new info before that last sentence. If the meerkat joins another mob, make a new section and just chance the name of the mob in the Last Sentence. It's real easy to do. Please keep the page about the meerkat that the page is for! We have lost of pages that talk about other meerkats but the meerkat the page is named after. Please keep information to that meerkat the page relates to. 'Sections' When a meerkat joins a new mob please create a section for that new mob, unless the meerkat was only in that mob for a short while such as Cecil was apart of the Mayans but he left within the month he joined. There was no major information to give so there was no section for that event. However if the meerkat joins a new mob for a while or stays in that new mob, please create a new section for the new mob and give information of what the meerkat did in that new mob. Please don't talk about other meerkats like who took dominance, as it is not important to the meerkat's page because it doesn't relayed to the meerkat the page is about. Only if that meerkat took dominance go into greater detail, or just say so and so became the dominant pair. 'Categories' Please add only nessacery categories and try to keep them in order. Here is an example using the meerkat Axel. He was born in the Young Ones, so we give him the Young Ones meerkats category, Whiskers meerkats and Lazuli meerkats because those were the groups he was in. They are in order to when he joined those mobs. When a meerkat dies or is Last Seen, remove Roving males or Evicted females category before adding Deceased meerkats '''or '''Last Seen meerkats category, because this meerkat won't be roving or being evicted anymore the category is no longer needed. We are no longer using Suborinate meerkats, unless a dominant meerkat is overthrown and becomes a subordinate again. Every meerkat but the dominants are subordinate so it's a bit unnecessary category for all pages. Also the category Dominate meerkats '''is no longer going to be used, because it is spelled wrong. The correct category is '''Dominant meerkats, so if you see a page with the category Dominate meerkats, please remove it and put the right category Dominant meerkats in it's place. Dominate meerkats category has been deleted. 'Photos' We really only need one photo of a meerkat. Please do not put a hunderd photos on a page, especially if the photos are all of the same event and hardly change such as sentry or grooming. Each page should have at least on photo. Please no photos of the meerkats' backs on a page, unless this is the only known photo of a deceased meerkat. Please put the photo size to 300 on a page but not in the template. Photos in a templates should be kept at 250x. 300x in the template stretches the template out too much, 250x in the template is a good size. 'Information' As I said before keep the information on the page about the meerkat. Any infomation concerning other events should be brief such as the death of a dominant meerkat or deaths or siblings. About 90% of the info on the page should be about the meerkat at topic. I have found several pages where the meerkat that the page is named after has about 30% information about the meerkat and 70% about other meerkats. Another this is we need to keep the info on the pages as facts, not opinions or speculations. Please keep personal opinions off of the pages. Blogs are for opinions or speculations about meerkats not the meerkats' pages. 'Spelling' Well we all make mistakes, but please re-read what you just types from the top of the page to the buttom. Make sure to correct any spelling errors you may find or rewrite a sentence if it doesn't make sense. Read out loud if you must and if you are unsure how to spell a word, look it up or rephase the sentence. We all make mistakes, I have dyslexia so I make spelling errors all the time, however I am good at catching them, so you can do the same. If you see a spelling error on a page, please corrent it at once. By doing these things will prevent MeerkatGal or I from having to go back and finish your edits. These are little things that are often over look, but make all the difference. By making full complete edits will help out our wikia a lot. Everyone can work together and make this wikia great. Category:Blog posts